


To the Moon and Back | To the Sun and Back

by GreenAppleSause



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: After a decade of writing fanfics I still have no idea how to end them, Childhood, Childhood Friends, Did you know that Japanese CPS sucks?, Fukuroudani, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Poly Captain Verse, part of a larger au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:20:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24604579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenAppleSause/pseuds/GreenAppleSause
Summary: At age five, Yukie moves in next to her soon to be best friend.At age six, Yukie felt like something was wrong with her best friend.At age twelve, Yukie knew something was happening.At age thirteen, Yukie started seeing burises.By age eighteen, Yukie had helped all she could.A story of Yukie and Koutarou, and how a little girl tried to do her best.
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji & Bokuto Koutarou, Bokuto Koutarou & Shirofuku Yukie, Bokuto Koutarou/Kuroo Tetsurou/Sawamura Daichi, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 42





	To the Moon and Back | To the Sun and Back

**Author's Note:**

> Well, I'm back, and I've _finally_ finished writing a short for the Poly Captain Verse.  
> The PCV is a joint project between my friend StarrySarcasm and I, and has been in progress for a few months now, and this is the first offical fic for it, despite it only having the barest hints of the actual Poly Captains part of the AU.
> 
> This fic is more focused on the relationship between Yukie and Bokuto, and a little bit of Bokuto and Akaashi's.
> 
> I will warn, this fic focuses on implied child abuse and neglect, and touches briefly on heteronormativity/homophobia. If either of those topics are ones you would rather avoid, please exit out of this fic.
> 
> Thanks, xx Apple

Yukie Shirofuku was an only child until just before her fifth birthday. Not because her parents had another child, but because they moved house. Next door was a boy slightly older than her, with hair of grey and white and big gold eyes.

‘I’m Koutarou!’ he had introduced himself as when she first met him when she was lingering outside her new house, waiting for the furniture to be moved inside. He had come out of his own house to see what was happening and had run over to see her. Part of her was upset about moving away from all her friends, but as soon as she met him, she knew she wouldn’t want for friends anytime soon.

They weren’t inseparable at first, not until Yukie fell off the roller skates she had gotten for her birthday and grazed her hands. Koutarou helped her untie the skates and carried them back to her house, staying with her until her parents had helped her with the grazes.

That day she noticed a sad look in his eyes, but back then she didn’t know what it meant, she just knew she didn’t like it.

When they were both six, Koutarou grazed his knee badly, and despite her smaller stature, Yukie piggybacked him all the way back to her house. She’d only met Koutarou’s parents a few times, but she didn’t want to take him to them. He often got that sad look around them, and she didn’t like that look.

That was the first night he had stayed over, and it wouldn’t be the last. When Yukie woke to hearing Koutarou cry in his sleep, she was determined to help him however she could.

She woke him quietly just by squeezing his hand. ‘Kou?’

‘Mmm?’ he responded, not fully awake.

‘Love you to the moon and back.’

With a small smile on his face, Koutarou muttered, ‘And you to the sun and back,’ before falling asleep again, a little more settled.

Towards the end of elementary school, the two of them set up a little zipline between their windows, which faced each other. Both had a little basket which they could send things across. It had started as a little way to help each other with homework, and pass notes in the middle of the night, or whenever Koutarou was grounded, which seemed to be more and more often.

Yukie noticed the sad look more often by the time they both entered Ushimi Middle School together. How his smile didn’t meet his eyes anymore, how his gold eyes seemed to have dulled to brown. And the fact that her parents weren’t letting him stay the night anymore meant she didn’t know how to make sure he felt safe in his sleep. The two of them had both gotten used to being close, even holding hands in their sleep.

Her parents told her it was unbecoming of a young lady, and that she should be thinking about how her future husband would react to her holding hands with another man in her sleep. She thought that was stupid.

The only time she really saw Koutarou light up anymore was when she sent food over in their basket pulley system, or when he started talking about volleyball. Yuike didn’t fully understand the sport, but she still tired out for the girls’ team. She ended up just watching Koutarou’s games instead, and always made sure he had something to eat before and after his games and training. She always waited for his training to finish, no matter how late, to go home, and even left home early in the mornings to join him on his morning jogs on her roller skates, and go to training with him.

‘Yukippe?’ he asked on one of their morning jogs.

‘Yeah Kou?’

‘Why do you stick with me? I’m… I’m just no good.’

Yukie stopped right there, turning to face her best friend whose hair had deflated. ‘Koutarou, you are my best friend, my _brother_ basically. Of course I’m going to stick with you. And anyone who says you’re no good is going to regret it.

‘Now, get over here, and give me a hug. I love you to the moon and back, you know?’

‘And I love you to the sun and back.’

Koutarou smiled that not-smile at her again as he gave her a hug, and for not the first time, Yukie vowed to herself that she would protect him as best she can.

In their second year of middle school, Yukie was asked if she wanted to be the volleyball club’s official manager, since she was basically already doing that, and she accepted. Sure, she mostly did it for Koutarou, but she had fallen for the sport slowly over their first year. And now she was part of a team, even if she was just on the sidelines.

But over that second year, she noticed things with Koutarou were getting worse. He was asking her to send food over their pulley system more often, and he was climbing out his window to go on their morning jogs more and more. She didn’t like it, but she didn’t know what she could do. She was only thirteen.

‘Is your face okay?’ she asked one morning, seeing a bruise on his face.

‘Hmm? Oh yeah, remember that ball that hit me in the face yesterday? Guess it hit me harder than I thought,’ Koutarou laughed, his eyes as dull as they had been for a while.

 _‘I’ve seen bruises from a volleyball and I’ve seen bruises from a fist. That’s_ not _from a volleyball,’_ she thought, but she didn’t know how to say it to his face.

‘Well let’s get some ice on it, and I’ll try protect you from any stray balls from now on,’ she did say, hoping he’d know what she meant.

In their third year of middle school, the two knew they were going to have to start thinking about high schools. Koutarou had his heart set on Fukurodani Academy from a young age, and Yukie had promised to go with him. She knew she wasn’t leaving him. They may not have been tied at the hip like they had been when they made that promise, but she wasn’t one to go back on her word.

However, as he played volleyball more, he started to get frustrated when he couldn’t do things like he wanted to. Yukie had witnessed him like this before, when they were doing homework and things just wouldn’t make sense to him, no matter how many times he reread the same section or how she’d explain it. She was worried that this frustration was starting to bleed into his happy place, his safety net.

The day they both sent off their applications to Fukurodani Academy, Yukie took him aside for a moment.

‘Promise me something?’

‘Anything Yukippe.’

‘If you get into Fukurodani, and I don’t, you go there anyway. And if you don’t get in, you tell me which school you do get into, and I’ll follow you there.’

Yukie held out her pinky, something she hadn’t done since they were seven and they both threw their homework in the fireplace because neither of them could wrap their head around it.

Koutarou hooked his pinky around hers, ‘Promise.’

‘No matter where we are, I’ll always love you to the moon and back.’

‘And I’ll love you to the sun and back.’

That was the first night Yukie could clearly hear the shouting from the house next door. She was nearly fifteen at this point, and she knew exactly what was happening over the fence, and nearly begged her parents to do something about it.

‘How they live their lives has no effect on ours. Now mind your own business, Yukie. No man will want a nosy wife,’ they told her.

It wasn’t long until they graduated from middle school and were on the train to Fukurodani Academy together, Koutarou ready to join the volleyball team and Yukie ready to be their new manager.

Watching Koutarou in his element, on the court, with everything going as it should, it made Yukie smile. The happy glow in his eyes - the one that comforted her that first day she moved and she was just sitting on the sidewalk, the one that told her she wouldn’t ever be without friends - returned when he was like that.

Then things started going wrong on court. Little things, like he’d mess up a serve, or a receive was slightly off, things like that would build up, and he’d get frustrated. His new friends, Konoha, Sakuri, Washio and Komi dubbed it his emo mode, and Yukie wished she could laugh at that. It would be funny, if she didn’t know there was more behind it.

Over the summer, Koutarou met Kuroo Tetsuro, and a friendship blossomed. Yukie liked that, it meant that even when she was busy with manager stuff at training camps, she didn’t have to worry too much. She was happy that Koutarou was making more friends now, since he hadn’t gelled with their middle school team nearly as well.

But even with Koutarou’s “emo mode” he made it to the bench, and to being a regular, and they made it to nationals. Yukie standing in the stands, watching her best friend shine in his number twelve jersey, she almost cried. _“That’s my brother!”_ she wanted to yell.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see a boy with a similar look to her own when Koutarou spiked. She was sure she had seen them at one of their games earlier in the year. She waved to him a little as she left to go down to the court to celebrate with her team. She had made them lunch after all.

The first morning of their second year of high school, as Yukie stood outside their houses, skating in circles, she watched as Koutarou quickly climbed out of his window, and she knew that the deadbolt she had seen on the outside of his door was bolted shut overnight again. She hated that thing and wanted to break into that house with a screw gun and take it off the door.

Koutarou wouldn’t let her get a word in about it though, instead excitedly talking about what the new first years would be like, and how Yukie was now the only manager and she would get to be courtside more now.

His smile did reach his eyes now, but her’s didn’t. She knew he was trying to distract her. Even still, she laughed and gave him his lunch, telling him that he has to eat it all to keep up his muscle growth.

Yukie saw that boy she’d seen watching their games as part of the new first year lineup - Akaashi Keiji he said his name was - and Koutarou was practically vibrating in excitement at him saying he was a setter.

Koutarou immediately befriended the stoic first year, and Yukie knew he was drawn in by the joyful glow Koutarou emanated when he was in a good headspace. She just hoped beyond hope that he wouldn’t run off when he got frustrated.

The bruises she had noticed had started becoming more frequent, and Koutarou kept lying to her. She had started sneaking him into her room at night, trying to keep him safe, sending full meals over their pulley system instead of just snacks and her study notes. Yukie was scared, and had called child protective services by this point. She was just told that the local shelter was at capacity, and that Koutarou would be put on their waiting list.

She hated it so much, and so she just kept doing what she could. Icing bruises, making meals, just trying to help.

One morning Koutarou didn’t come out as early as usual, Yukie skating in circles outside their houses as usual. It had been a bad week, and when he did finally leave the house, his hair was deflated as it was when he had a bad day. She hoped that the summer training camps coming up would help brighten his mood.

That afternoon, Yukie had been filling up water bottles for the team when she had overheard the official setter and another third year.

‘Honestly, I don’t think he had as everyone says he does.’

‘I know, the amount of times I’ve set to him and he’s just not gone for the spike is starting to piss me off.’

‘You should just stop. He’s been getting worse lately, and I’m pretty sure he’s going to get benched.’

‘I am not going to be setting to some stupid baby who can’t even spike, that’s for sure.’

Something in Yukie just snapped at that point. She walked up to the third year setter, who was admittedly taller than her, and just decked him.

She was tired of people bad mouthing Koutarou, she’d heard it enough over the last few years, and if she couldn’t do anything about his parents, she would deal with the people around the school who she could deal with.

She dropped an ice pack in his lap and picked up the water bottles she’d been filling up. ‘I’d go home if I were you.’

As she reentered the gym, Coach Takeyuki asked her where the setter was. ‘Oh, he hurt himself, and said he should go home. I gave him an ice pack and sent him on his way,’ she smiled. ‘Maybe Akaashi could be the setter for this practice match?’

That was the day that Koutarou finally got to play with Akaashi as his setter, properly and not just spiking drills, and he perked up quite a bit.

Akaashi noticed the light bruising on the manager’s knuckles, but didn’t comment, even when the third year came back the next day with a black eye.

As their second year came to a close, Yukie noticed Koutarou spent more time at Akaashi’s house. He said that his mum was very nice, even if he didn’t understand what she was saying sometimes because she spoke French more often than Japanese. He’d also spend a lot of time on the phone with Kuroo, laughing about another volleyball player they knew, Daishou Suguru.

The day Koutarou was announced to be the next captain and ace, he and Yukie cried. He made Akaashi his vice, and while the other soon to be third years complained about it a bit, they knew it was the best choice. If the captain was to lead them, their vice needed to be able to guide their capitan through anything. Konoha made a joke that Yukie should have been his vice, but she shook her head. No matter how well she knew her best friend, Akaashi could read him like a book.

Third year started well for them, and Yukie still spent her evenings cooking meals for Koutarou and the team. Her parents did comment on how she’d be such a good wife with how diligently she cooks, and she rolled her eyes, not bothering to tell her parents she was a big gay.

The team was progressing well, and their new first years fit in well, Kaori Suzumeda picking up her new role as a manager well.

All seemed well until one morning Koutarou didn’t come out of the house. Yukie hadn’t been late that morning, and something felt off to her. She tried to tell herself that he had just gone to their Saturday training early. She tried to believe it.

She and Koutarou were usually the first people to the gym on weekend training days, and Yukie was first that day, but there was no sign of Koutarou. _‘Maybe he forgot his keys and went on a jog around here,’_ she thought to herself, but she knew that wasn’t the case when Akaashi showed up.

All morning, Yukie spent more time watching the gym doors than the practice. She called Koutarou every half hour, and sent him texts between those calls. He hadn’t missed a day of training without telling her why for over five years, and she just couldn’t shake the bad feeling.

Around two that afternoon, Koutarou ran through the doors, panting and bruised, a panicked look in his barely gold eyes. Yukie shot up immediately and looked him over, first aid kit on her hip. Sitting him down, she noticed blood and tears, and she knew immediately what had happened, and she wasn’t going to stand for it.

‘Practice is over for the day,’ Coach Takeyuki announced as he caught sight of the capitan. Yukie was already icing bruises, his nose and swollen wrist.

‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ she repeated like a mantra, trying to stop her own tears from spilling as she disinfected a graze on his knee, just like the one she had carried him to her parents about when they were little.

‘It was my fault,’ he whispered back, to which Yukie shook her head. This young man, her _brother_ was the kindest soul she knew, and she wouldn’t let him take the blame for this.

‘Akaashi? Could you take him to your house tonight?’ she asked the setter, and she got a silent nod.

After putting his wrist in a splint, and telling Akaashi to take him to a doctor because she couldn’t be sure if it was actually sprained, she sent Koutarou off with the setter, believing it was the safest bet. He lived two train stops away from them, and that would have to be far enough.

With a determined gait, she set off for her neighbours house, that she hadn’t set foot in for nearly twelve years.

From the entryway, she could see something had happened here, not that she needed to see it to know. She called out to Koutarou’s parents, before seeing that they had a booked holiday that would have them at the airport. There was no food in the house, no money for Koutarou to be able to get food for himself. The house was immaculate in all the places that she instinctively knew were places Koutarou wouldn’t be allowed. Places welfare officers would have been shown.

Yukie felt sick, and took photos of everything, sending them to Akaashi, and asking if he and his mother would be alright with housing the captain for a little longer than a night.

Instead of a text response, she received a call from Akaashi’s mother, telling her that she’d keep Koutarou under her roof as long as she needed, and that she was calling an acquaintance of hers to help with adopting him legally if he wanted.

Yukie nearly cried in relief.

That July, with Koutarou’s sprain healed and legal matters ongoing in the background, he and Kuroo both asked the captain of Karasuno out, and he agreed for some reason. Koutarou also grew close to Karasuno’s little ball of energy, something Yukie melted at the sight of. She hadn’t seen him that happy in such a long time. She didn’t know how long, but she just quietly thanked Akaashi for helping.

Koutarou was officially adopted by Akaashi’s mother, a half Japanese half French woman by the name of Valerie, in late August. Yukie was invited over for dinner that night, though she was a little thrown off by the French being spoken around her, even Koutarou occasionally joining in.

Though she missed their morning jogs, Yukie was happy that her best friend was safe. Even if he asked her to keep it a secret from his boyfriends. The two intertwined their pinkies to seal the deal.

During Nationals that January, Yukie let Kaori take her place on the bench and Yukie took her place back in the stands, watching Koutarou as her ace for the last time, his adoptive mother cheering by her side. She knew she’d never stop cheering for him for the rest of her life, and that she’d always be there for him.

No matter if he was a professional volleyball player and she was a nutritionist. No matter how many boyfriends Koutarou amassed, he’d always be her best friend.

And that no matter how long they’d known each other, she’d love him to the moon and back, and he’d love her to the sun and back.


End file.
